Youngest Son suddenly decided that pedals are the future and got his big brothers to teach him to ride a bike.. The first we knew about it was when Beautiful Wife saw him racing past the kitchen. He’s spent most of the week giving demonstrations and finding any excuse to ride anywhere (except up hills: still working on that). It’s great to see him happy, growing, more independent and mobile etc, but I’ll miss having a small person on my bike. The Kindergarten pickup has changed from carrying Eldest Son and as many of his friends as can fit into the Bakfiets, to towing a small bike up the hill using the Xtracycle, unhitching, and riding home together. That’s fun too, even if we have to follow a rather indirect route to avoid the main road, because people in cars are obviously more important than families who merely live here.
Anyway, Beautiful wife had mentioned that chocolate supplies were going down. This is a serious problem, so Youngest and I decided that we’d go to on the almost entirely traffic free route to the next town and resupply before things got dangerous: the sun was shining, and it would be a chance for Youngest to go out on a bike ride with a purpose. We decided on a plan: on the uphill bits I’d tow Youngest Son’s bike and he’d ride the Xtracycle, and if it rained (which of course it wouldn’t, as it was so sunny and bright) I could tow us home.
I really should have looked at the weather report closely, or taken more notice of those clouds behind us, especially as we had a tailwind. As we came out of the shop the weather caught up with us and my suspicions were confirmed that Youngest Son’s ‘waterproof’ coat wasn’t.
Fortunately there was a longer but less windy route through various housing estates and along the most expensive cycle lane in the world. By the time we’d made it to the top of the hill the rain had given up so Youngest Son got to ride the last bit and still seemed to be smiling when we got home. Of course the question is if he’s smiling because of the ride or smiling because it was over.
Ah, well, chocolate supplies restored…
5 comments
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May 27, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Simon
Did Youngest Son practice with a trainer bike first? Those pedal-less bikes have become quite common around here. Supporting wheels on the other hand I rarely see anymore, which is a good thing I guess.
May 30, 2012 at 9:48 am
Andy in Germany
Hello Simon, thanks for the comment. Yes, he did use a trainer first. Eldest Son had training wheels and it took ages to wean him off them: Training bikes or Laufräder are a far better idea because they allow the small person some mobility earlier, and then they can ‘upgrade’ to pedals as and when they are ready.
I’ve realised I wasn’t subscribed to your blog, I’ve now sorted that out.
May 30, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Simon
I think training wheels give a false sense of security, as you never learn the counter-intuitive process of accelerating to not fall down.
Learning to cycle means learning to balance, so Laufräder are the way to go.
Thanks for subscribing!
June 6, 2012 at 11:49 am
kevinmayne
I like the story, seems so familiar yet “Youngest son”, in fact only son, in my case is now 21, but he still mentions some of our milestones in cycling and wants to ride with old git Dad even now.
Enjoy!
June 9, 2012 at 9:47 am
Andy in Germany
Thanks Kevin. Yes, cycling with the boys is a great way o get to know them better, and to give them a skill for life. Tha nks for the encouragement. Also, by cycling with the boys now, then when I’m a really old fart, I’ll still be able to keep up with him. (I can dream…)